For a time last year there was some serious chatter about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo being a potential Democrat nominee for 2016. Even if Hillary weren’t likely going to be in the hunt, I’m pretty sure that chatter ended once Cuomo took the shocking, overreaching measures of passing the gun grabbing SAFE Act and then signing an abortion bill which gave even some moderately pro-choice people pause. He had sailed so far off the Left fringe of the map that he would be easy meat for any Republican in the swing states.

This weekend, I have to wonder if one of his frequently mentioned counterparts from across the aisle, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie isn’t getting ready to head down the same trail. While the nation’s eyes were riveted on the Boston bombing, the West, Texas explosion and other tragedies, Christie was moving to increase gun control laws in a state which is already one of the most restrictive in the nation.

Days after the U.S. Senate killed off their gun control bill, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced expanded gun control measures in his state. The move isn’t likely to win him points with conservatives. In Christie’s plan he even bans a certain gun according to NJ101.5…

At the announcement of Christie’s NJ SAFE Taskforce in January in the aftermath of Newtown, he talked about targeting and treating the root causes of violence. Too many times there are instances of unspeakable tragedy and the question is asked how such tragedy could have been prevented. His proposals is this area include;

Making it easier for health professionals and courts to require potentially dangerous people to receive the treatment they need whether it is in the form of inpatient or outpatient care. This will allow the monitoring of their progress and ensure they are receiving the kind of specific care they need.

Creating flexibility in the type of care an individual is receiving, making it easier for someone to move from inpatient to outpatient settings.

Changing the current standard of involuntary outpatient treatment to eliminate the uncertainty expressed by clinicians and courts regarding their authority to order this type of essential assistance.

The mental health angle, more vulnerable to abuse than all the rest, is precisely the one that Cuomo used in NY to begin scouring the medical records of people who were prescribed anxiety or depression medicine and sending out the troops to confiscate their weapons. One would think that Christie would have the sense and the political survival skills to look at this particular pond much more closely before diving in.

He additionally includes provisions about going after regulation in the sales of video games. None of the proposed restrictions look all that heinous, but it’s yet another case of layering complications on the lives of private citizens where families should be doing the heavy lifting. I don’t know if this will be a negative watershed moment for Christie, but the folks in Iowa are already watching nervously here.

“Middle America is always suspect of the guys from the East Coast in these matters,” said Craig Robinson, who runs the influential Iowa Republican blog. “What is your understanding and foundation on issues like this? Plenty of Iowa Republicans are already grumbling at him. If he were to go another step further and sign into law the gun thing, or the marriage thing, I think it would almost disqualify him as a national candidate.”